Free Weights vs. Exercise Machines

Written by Aaron M. Potts, ISSA CFT, YFT


Anyone who has ever been in a gym before is familiar withrepparttar gleaming banks of shiny exercise machines. Coming in all shapes and sizes, they are usually cause forrepparttar 115299 newcomer torepparttar 115300 gym to pause and ask, “What IS all of that stuff?”

Well, according torepparttar 115301 price thatrepparttar 115302 gym paid for any one piece of that equipment, I certainly hope that it not only stimulates your muscles, but also cooks your breakfast, washes your car, and bringsrepparttar 115303 kids home from soccer practice! Nowrepparttar 115304 question becomes whether or not those machines were worthrepparttar 115305 price, or if you’d be better off doing a home aerobics video with a can of soup in each hand….

Personally, I would advise you to getrepparttar 115306 low-sodium version ofrepparttar 115307 soup, serve it up alongside a tomato sandwich, and then go buy yourself some free weights. Yes, that is just my opinion, but it does come with some scientific reasoning behind it.

Natural movement vs. Controlled movement

One ofrepparttar 115308 things that you need to remember is that when you are exercising, you are training for LIFE. You may spend an hour a day atrepparttar 115309 gym, but that still leaves 23 other hours for your muscles to function withoutrepparttar 115310 aid of that fancy equipment.

Whenever you do any given exercise,repparttar 115311 movement of your body during that exercise is calledrepparttar 115312 Range of Motion. The greater and more difficultrepparttar 115313 Range of Motion,repparttar 115314 more effectiverepparttar 115315 exercise is, because your body has to work harder to perform that movement.

Let’s take a classic dumbbell bicep curl for our case study. If you aren’t familiar withrepparttar 115316 movement, it is basically performed by standing up straight with your palms facing forward, and a pair of dumbbells held down at your sides. You concentrically contract your biceps (also known as flexing your elbow) to bringrepparttar 115317 dumbbells up to approximately shoulder level, and then repeatrepparttar 115318 movement for a prescribed number of repetitions.

Let’s take that same muscle movement and do it using a bicep curl machine. You sit down, brace your upper arms on a pad, grasp 2 handles that are in front of you, and do that same fancy elbow flexing movement to moverepparttar 115319 handles in an upward motion. Pretty easy stuff so far, right?

Now let’s examinerepparttar 115320 muscles that are used in this motion. Wait – I thought we were concentrically contractingrepparttar 115321 biceps? That is correct, and if you are usingrepparttar 115322 bicep curl machine, that is pretty much ALL you are doing. For one, you are sitting down. You know, like you did all day at work, and then in your car onrepparttar 115323 way torepparttar 115324 gym. Then, your upper arms are braced on a nice soft pad to keep your upper body stable while you pullrepparttar 115325 handles upwards. The machine has effectively limitedrepparttar 115326 muscles used in this exercise torepparttar 115327 biceps, as well asrepparttar 115328 muscles in your forearms and fingers as you griprepparttar 115329 handles.

My Golden Gym

Written by Marcia Passos Duffy


You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long asrepparttar byline is included in its entirety (found atrepparttar 115298 end ofrepparttar 115299 article). A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated -- please send to editor@theheartofnewengland.com. A .jepg photo ofrepparttar 115300 author and her dog are available upon request.

Title: "My Golden Gym" Author: Marcia Passos Duffy E-mail: editor@theheartofnewengland.com Web Address: www.TheHeartofNewEngland.com Category: Health/Fitness/Pets “My Golden Gym” By Marcia Passos Duffy Editor & publisher The Heart of New England www.theheartofnewengland.com

“Don’t accept your dog’s admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.” -- Ann Landers

A year ago, almost torepparttar 115301 day, I had an epiphany while exercising at my local gym. I was on a treadmill sweating along with about 30 other people, glued torepparttar 115302 latest CNN horrors onrepparttar 115303 big-screen, when I glanced outside atrepparttar 115304 absolutely gorgeous spring day. That wasrepparttar 115305 precise moment when I decided to get a dog. Okay, it wasn’trepparttar 115306 “precise” moment…because I had been toying withrepparttar 115307 idea for almost a year. But up until that moment last year onrepparttar 115308 treadmill, I felt there was really no good reason to get a dog other than to complicate my already busy life and to add another mouth to feed along with our 2 children, 4 guinea pigs, 3 cats, 3 fish, and a then-leased horse for our daughter. Butrepparttar 115309 more I looked outside that day,repparttar 115310 more I wanted to be out there, walking, maybe even jogging, alongside a furry devoted friend. Yes,repparttar 115311 dog would have a purpose – it would be my walking dog! An exercise dog. A reason to get out of that stuffy gym and intorepparttar 115312 great outdoors! After all, what wasrepparttar 115313 point of living in scenic Northern New England ofrepparttar 115314 country if I rarely got outside to enjoy it? And I never walked inrepparttar 115315 woods alone – my New York mentality (where I grew up) and paranoia would not allow it -- my heart raced with every squirrel or bird that snapped a twig or rustled a leaf. My dog would be my protector – at least a deterrent -- against any would-be assassin/rapist/kidnapper lurking inrepparttar 115316 woods. Suddenly,repparttar 115317 reason to get a dog made perfect sense. In his insightful book, “The New Work of Dogs” John Katz makesrepparttar 115318 case forrepparttar 115319 new role of dogs. Once herders, guard and hunting dogs, now our canine friends have a new work: tending to life, love and family. Dogs need a job, and they will adapt to whatever circumstances their human companions give them. What I wanted from my dog was simple: security while walking inrepparttar 115320 woods and a reason to walk everyday. A survey done a few years ago in Australia showed that dog owners walked an average of 18 minutes more per week than non-dog owners. Studies abound extollingrepparttar 115321 psychological benefits of dog. Plus...dogs are not afraid ofrepparttar 115322 dark, are excellent listeners, they’re never critical and never gossip, they follow you

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use